‘We are chameleons’: identity capital in a multicultural workplace

This exploratory research investigates ‘identity capital’ in a multicultural workplace environment. Guided by Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical approach to capital and James Côté's concept of identity capital, we examine the strategic deployment of identity capital among adults in a multicultural immigrant-serving organization in Mississauga, serving the region of Peel, Ontario. The study involves 15 personal interviews with staff of this organization. The findings show that identity capital is deployed in social situations with clients, colleagues, and supervisor in the workplace. Moreover, the deployment of identity capital occurs through greetings, body language, finding connecting pieces, and methods of communication. Finally, the deployment of identity capital is strategic. The paper concludes that identity capital is a useful concept to explain the varied resources individuals have available to negotiate changing workplace environments.     

Comparison of prediction methods for multicollinear data

In this paper we discuss the partial least squares (PLS) prediction method. The method is compared to the predictor based on principal component regression (PCR). Both theoretical considerations and computations on artificial and real data are presented.     

Long-Term Effects of a Plant Closure: a Multistate Duration Analysis of Event History Data in a Ten-Year Follow-Up Study

This paper discusses the possible effects on future prospects in the labour market of those who suffer a plant closure. A multistate duration model is estimated on monthly event data comprising 172 individuals over ten years, with the occurrence of the plant closure among the regressors. An individual can escape to one of several destinations when exiting one of three origin states (unemployed, sick leave, outside the labour force). Our prime concern has been transitions leading to a new job or to destination states outside the labour force (disability pension and at home, without any social security benefit). We find indications of severe negative long-term effects on employment from a plant closure: long durations in unemployment when searching for new jobs, higher incidence of leaving the labour force, longer periods of sick leave and higher incidence of disability pension. Thus, an adverse shock reducing employment may have negative long-term effects on the labour market through long spells of unemployment and a shrinking labour force. Our findings thus support the hypothesis of hysteresis dynamics in the labour market.